AH HA!

Not only am I posting pictures for this weeks word challenge, but I am doing it early! I'm pinning on my award now.

Finished

JoDee Messina

Saturday night a few of us headed to Ellsworth, WI to the Cheese Curd festival. Yup, that's right, a Cheese Curd festival. This was by far the smallest "fair" I have ever been to. I would say the booths covered approximately one block but offered some very delicious fattening foods. We had curds, tacos, blooming onion and fries. Washed down with a beer (or 2 or 5). The highlight of the evening was the JoDee Massina concert.

She was on stage for 1 1/2 hours and never took a break. She had banter with the audience and sang beautifully. I first heard her a couple years ago and her song, My Give a Damn's Busted, became my theme song. Funny thing is that I didn't realize just how many of her songs I knew. There was one that she sang that I had never heard before and once again I found myself relating to one of her songs.

"I want a man that stands beside me

Not in front of or behind me

Give me two arms that want to hold me, not own me

And I'll give all the love in my heart

Stand beside me

Be true, don't tell lies to me

I'm not lookin' for a fantasy

I want a man that who stands beside me"

Sums it up in just a few short lines. Reminds me that country music isn't all that bad. I just choose to shut it off when I require kleenex to get through a song.

My sons girlfriend went with me and another couple and we had a blast. She is just beautiful and I adore her.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Happy Monday!

My 40th!

I was so excited to turn 40 this month. I can't even explain it. 30 sucked big time as 12 days before my birthday I was informed that my husband had 6 - 12 months to live. My 30's were spent caring for him, which as a wife is not a bad thing, but then his drinking got worse and it's all history from there. Being on my own for the past couple of years and now crossing this mile stone brought much excitement for me. And I must admit that hearing people say, "You have a son that's 19? No Way!" or "You're really 40? I thought you were early 30's" kind of helped the transition. I'm happy, truely happy for the first time in years. I have a tight knit group of wonderful friends, I took a vacation to Jamaica alone, my kids are both at home and I am feeling more confident every day. Life is good, live is really good.

I celebrated my birthday with some good friends and my kids. We all went down to the local watering hole and probably celebrating a little more than we should have, but boy did I have fun.

Next to my BFF R, this woman is the greatest. She allows me to totally be me without judgement or expectation. I am so blessed to have them both in my life.

My beautiful step daughter joined us. I hadn't seen her since the funeral in March. She brought me a pin that had flashing lips and said, Kiss Me I'm 40.

The reason for my entire being. These kids are my whole life and I love them more than words can express.

Here's to a new chapter in my life. I'm looking forward to all it has to offer, good and bad.

Check it out!

Newt and I are doing our own personal walk-a-thon this summer. We have a mutual blog friend that was diagnosed with MS and we had considered doing the actual walk for MS. Once we realized the overhead, we thought that we could do this ourselves. So, as of Friday, we have adorned high tech (and they are high tech, I'm still trying to figure out all the buttons) pedometers and will be logging our miles/steps throughout the summer. ALL money raised will go directly to MS research. Check out our blog. There is a link on the left side to donate, if you'd like. Otherwise you can just peek at the fun we will be having with this event.

http://feetsoffancy.blogspot.com/

Thanks!

Much Love,
D

Survey

So I met someone on MySpace and we started chatting about being in relationships with people that are just not good for us. Alcoholics, drug users, drama, etc. We decided last night that we want to start up a support group for other out there just like us. Here's the problem, since we both have horrible track records of picking out someone that has their shit together, I am reaching out to my blog friends for a little help. I am looking for advice on finding a "healthy" partner. Also, for those of you that have also experienced the same thing, what kinds of questions should be asked and what are the "little" signs that you would say someone should be looking for as a prelude to the fact that this person will no doubt bring problems to the relationship. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.

I thank you, and my fellow MySpace friend thanks you as well.

Just for curiosities sake

I typed up the post below without considering the fact that people have strong imaginations. When talking to my BFF last night, she informed me that when she read my post her mind starting racing on all the possibilities for me being so guilt ridden. So that brings me to this post. I'm curious to know what might have run through your mind on what it was that I could have possibly done Friday night to cause me to be so upset.

These are the possibilities my BFF came up with:

Alien Clowns
Mime
Donkey
Priest

I'm sure you can figure out in what context these possibilites were used. Needless to say, by the end of our conversation, I was laughing my ass off. I also realized that what I did do really wasn't all THAT bad and ultimately I can't change it. I just know that I will never put myself in that type of situation again.

Live and Learn.

Thank you for your comments, they were all very appreciated.

(Much love to my BFF for last night. You are a special gift in my life. To know that I can do something so rediculous and come to you without being judged. And if you are judging...you do a fabulous job of not letting it show! I love ya for that. Now, can we still go shoe shopping?)

How do you let it go?

Guilt. Probably one of the most difficult things to live with and it's really consuming right now. I returned home from Jamaica last night and had a wonderful time. I have some beautiful memories that I will carry with me forever. But something happened Friday night that I am ashamed of. I don't know why I allowed it, but I did and more details flowed to me last night that nearly tore me in two. I had already felt sick over the whole thing as it was, the new information just made it worse.

How do you let it go? How do you release that guilt from within yourself and know that you're still a good person? It's one of those major F*CK ups that you hold inside and would never share with anyone because of the shame that's attached to it.

So, fellow bloggers, have you ever done anything that you were so ashamed of that you won't ever tell anyone about? How did/do you deal with it? How do you truely resolve that within yourself and let it go?

I will post pics tomorrow. It really was a wonderful experience and I look forward to visiting again very soon.

Let's start with WWC..a day late...

I'm combining the words this week in the pictures...Light and Dark.

New puppy

Light coming in on my dark bedspread. (I have new pillows!)

Sexy new shoes! totally unrelated to WWC I know, but I had to show them off.

Now, today is a special day. Today is Lucy's 1st birthday! She has been such a light in my life over the past year. She is always happy, her fur is like silk and even though Newt calls her the Spawn, I love her with my whole heart. So...HAPPY BIRTHDAY Ms. LUCY. Mama loves you so bad!

I would like to introduce....

Tne newest member of our family....Chops. an AKC register, pure bred boxer. He graced our home last night via my son who is lucky that I love him as much as I do. He and Lucy are getting along really well and I'm looking forward to them wearing each other out on a daily basis.

This right here is a face only a mother could love. He looks like an angry old man.

That's about all I got right now. I've been pretty sick the past few days and I'm going to put myself back in bed now.

Oh, one last note. I booked myself a trip to Jamaica for next week. I'm going to an all inclusive resort all by myself for a few days. I've never done something like this before and I'm really excited!